The Arrival

The beginning of the second war against the Red Empire

The Arrival

Words escape me as I try to scribe down the events that have happened during the last month. 28 days, nearly a month, have passed since the day we stepped into the ruined city of Everon, and those days have not been easy for anyone. What we witnessed in the northern mountains was something beyond imagination, something one does not wish to happen during any era. We stand at war. A war for which no-one can foresee the consequences. Thus I have not written my journal for a while. I handed my previous journal to Davy for safe keeping and as a possible recording of the history of our struggle against our devious enemy.

Just two days ago we returned from our diplomatic mission to Leguinea and a day after that I witnessed the first major battle against the armies of the invaders and my heart grows numb from the defeat we faced. I find myself engulfed with anger and spite towards our enemies. I will not narrate our past events in detail, but will include the formal report I handed over to the High King himself and briefly describe our travels in the past month. Of our journey to Leguinea I will write on another occasion.

Extracts from the official report given to the High King and his lieges

Day 63

11th of Simiuisonna, 1270

…. as we entered the lost city of Everon, we encountered a lizard-like race living in the ruins. At first we were attacked by large and aggressive lizard beasts, but were later saved by smaller and more friendly ones who took us to their leaders. These lizard referred themselves as the Cold-Blooded. In exchange for the information we needed to track our enemies and find the right passages in the city, they in turn asked a favour from us. The lizard people were struggling with mutant Bozars, a larger subrace that risen against their rulers, led by a mutant called Kragnak. Kragnak was gathering his own forces to strike down the strange mummified creatures called Arbiters that ruled over the Lizardkin. We were to slay the mutant and bring his heart to the mummified elders …

… eventually we agreed that we would not destroy the mutant, Kragnak, and his spawning pool. He explained to us that he was creating a stronger and smarter generation of Bozars to end the tyranny of the mummified creatures. He gave us the heart of one of his new spawnlings that had died during incubation. We returned that heart to the Arbiters and were quided to the passages our enemies had ventured …

… We were quided into an underground canal and entered a small ferry that seemed to be infused with magical powers that propelled it along the waters. The ferry carried us deeper into the underground. On our way we were ambushed by hungry water beasts that tried to drag us down into the water…

…having ascended higher and higher from the canals we emerged from the side of the mountain atop a ruined temple. Below was a massive canyon seated between the forbodin mountains. We observed Geshtar and his lackeys from a safe distance. The dark wizard chanted strange words and held The Stone of Algernon levitated above his hand. The earthquakes we had felt earlier began to tremble the very foundations of the mountain. A turbulent wind full of small lightning eruptions filled the air and a thundering boom shook the mountain passage below us. Suddenly the wind stopped and for a brink of a moment there was a total silence. Suddenly a fiery arc appeared above the mountain passage. A massive portal appeared at the end of the canyon and at first it seemed like the air in the passage was sucked into it. The mercenary group around Geshtar gazed at the sight mouths open as the turbulence slowly calmed down and a massive army began to march into the mountain passage. A stream of blood red standards and capes formed a sea of living menace below us. A cacophony of war drums and the marching of heavily armoured infantry filled the passage and just when I thought the noise couldn’t grow any louder, a thundering roar nearly deafened us as an enormous red dragon flew from the gate and rose into the sky. Its red scaled shined like rubies and its mighty body cast a terrifying shadow over the mountain slope…

I must admit that i didn’t mention the way we were noticed by Geshtar in my report, but this was revealed to our noble audience once Sweeney projected the recordings from The Seeing Pearl before them. Aeran, Camil, and I blushed as the projection showed us fumbling near a massive stone statue that we somehow managed to topple and send crashing through the roof of the stone palace.

…we had to retreat. There was no chance for us to try and fight an entire army and since we had been noticed we really had no other choice. The ferry took us to a safe exit through the mountain and we managed to escape and find our way back to Sweeney’s tower…

…the army that had arrived through the portal Sweeney referred as a World Gate was identified by the wizard as that of the distant empire in the west called Visirothia. We knew this mysterious empire only from stories. They were the foreign power that had clashed against Ellysia four centuries ago in the war that caused the Skyfall and the end of the Imperial Cycle. The return of the Red Empire came as a shock to Sweeney who had sunk into a deep deppression, mumbling something how he’s had enough of war and loss. After speaking with Badb it became clear that the wizard was ancient indeed, and had fought in the previous war alongside the Ellysians …

Day 64 – 65

12th – 13th of Simiuisonna, 1270

After much effort I managed to convince Sweeney to join us and he teleported us all to Caern Môrn. There we were given an audience to the high king himself and his most important lieges in the north, including Devin magh Keeth, whom I had pledged my loyalty. Our audience was greatly shocked and we heard that there had been other dramatic news as well: the greenskin hordes of Chimeira had once again united and were pouring south at the moment. They were currently spreading mayhem in the northern provinces which were still reeling from the assassinations of their thanes. There had been news from the southern seas as well, but they were still too obscure to tell anything for certain: a survivor from a Cern ship reported that he had seen crimson sailed ships that appeared from the fog and spurted fire at the helpless Cern vessels. Apparently an entire armada was sailing towards the capital.

These news were bad. Even as solitary incidents, Visirothia and Chimeira caused a serious threat to Aenoria and combined they seemed like an enemy too formidable to defeat. The high ranking members of the court negotiated about the measures required to fight against the two armies. Devin magh Keeth gave us a mission to secure a diplomatic journey to Leguinea. Aenoria would need the help of the Leguinean mercenaries and we were to accompany Rhyss magh Tidol, the cousin of Percival magh Tidol, there. Rhyss magh Tidol was an accomplished diplomat who had been trusted with the task to gather allies from Leguinea. Devin magh Keeth also warned us to keep an eye on Rhyss as he belonged to the same clan as Percival, who we suspected to be an enemy agent within the Lord Magister. Branden tried to push his questions on Devin and showed an unwise disrespect for the venerable nobleman. Devin magh Keeth, however, kept his temper and lectured the young man on priorities and reminded Branden to know his place and rank. Branden, who had hoped for the nobleman to help him on his errand to find the maiden he was chasing, was furiated. I had to chase him down the city and talk to him privately. I managed to convice him that we should stick together and that I would help him with his quest once we settled things down. I pleaded on the fact that I feared that the prophecy about his death would be forfilled if our group would split. Branden swallowed his anger and simply nodded at me.

The next day we left to Leguinea on our mission, but I will write about that later.